Mayim Bialik Pulls Pranks With TV Lands Candid Camera Update

Smile, Mayim Bialik, you’re the host of the new Candid Camera! The star of TV’s No. 1 comedy, The Big Bang Theory, gets candid about reviving primetime’s original prank show, which aired on and off for more than five decades.

TV Guide Magazine: Candid Camera? A real-life PhD in neuroscience should be hosting Jeopardy!, shouldn’t she?Mayim Bialik: I appreciate that! I’m actually terrible at Jeopardy! This is a really neat fit, because they’re happy to have a female who’s interested in the larger issues. As Peter Funt, my producer and cohost [son of the classic show’s creator, Allen Funt], said, “I’m more than just a pretty face.” [Laughs]

TV Guide Magazine: If Candid Camera were a scientific experiment, what would it be measuring?Bialik: It is kind of a giant social experiment to see how people behave when there’s no logical explanation for why things are happening. It’s fascinating to see how people try to make sense of these gags.

TV Guide Magazine: Has the show been updated or is it the same type of comedy that has made fans laugh for years?Bialik: What’s nice about the show is that, if you can still hide cameras and create scenarios that are amusing to an audience and believable to the people who are participating, it doesn’t really need to change.

TV Guide Magazine: Are you surprised by the immense popularity of “Shamy” [Jim Parsons’s Sheldon and Bialik’s Amy] on Big Bang Theory?Bialik: Sheldon is such a beloved character and I do my best impression of him on a weekly basis, so I think people appreciate the female version of him. Plus, it’s nice to bring to TV a relationship that doesn’t require that the other person change.

TV Guide Magazine: Will this be the season that Shamy finally reaches home base?Bialik: Maybe second or third.[Laughs] There’s plenty to do without taking this to whatever next level society thinks we should reach!

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